The Who, What, and Why of the Dashboard

Before you begin exploring how to best create dashboards in Tableau, it is equally important for you to answer some of the essential questions around building the dashboard: Why are you building the dashboard in the first place? What is your end goal and who is your target audience?

The Who: Audience

After years of building dashboards, one thing that most experienced Tableau users will agree upon is the fact that the kind of dashboard you build will depend on the seniority of the stakeholder that you'll be presenting it to. If you are building a dashboard for C-level execs or directors/VPs of the business, more often than not, you will need to create a holistic, high-level dashboard that presents a complete picture of the business data. By way of contrast, when you are building a dashboard for a business development manager or marketing manager, the dashboard needs to be a lot more granular and deeply detailed.

As you will see...